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Religions
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Situating Religious Cognition
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Situating Religious Cognition

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 3229

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Timothy Stanley

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
Interests: philosophy of religion; intellectual history; political philosophy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to evaluate religious media as examples of situated cognition, as it is broadly understood. Case studies may include a diverse range of sacred texts, music, architecture, and ritual practices. Historical instances of religious media are welcome, as well as recent digital developments in virtual reality and artificial intelligence. The issue will approach each case as an example of situated cognition. For instance, essays might focus on novel interpretations of the extended nature of religious communication practices, enacted musical or artistic performances, embodied ritual practices, or various aspects of socially extended religious cognition. The issue also invites essays that recognize methodological innovation arising from such analyses. Approaching religious media as examples of situated cognition may foster new synergies with pragmatist, hermeneutic, phenomenological, and deconstructive approaches to the study of religion.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Situated cognition;
  • Extended mind theory;
  • 4e cognition;
  • Phenomenology of religion;
  • Media studies;
  • Pragmatist studies of religion;
  • Hermeneutics;
  • Deconstruction;

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Timothy Stanley
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • situated cognition
  • extended mind theory
  • 4e cognition
  • phenomenology of religion
  • media studies
  • pragmatist studies of religion
  • hermeneutics
  • deconstruction

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 226 KiB  
Article
Miniature Mindfulness: Finding Spiritual Flow with Warhammer 40,000 Models
by Tara B. M. Smith
Religions 2025, 16(2), 121; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16020121 - 23 Jan 2025
Viewed by 724
Abstract
Warhammer 40,000 (40k) is the world’s most popular miniature wargame. The game is played with miniatures (small-scale figures made of hard plastic or other materials), which have usually been painted by each individual player. These player–painters typically spend hours in deep concentration painting [...] Read more.
Warhammer 40,000 (40k) is the world’s most popular miniature wargame. The game is played with miniatures (small-scale figures made of hard plastic or other materials), which have usually been painted by each individual player. These player–painters typically spend hours in deep concentration painting the models. Drawing on interviews and journal entries from a six-month participant study of 14 painters, this paper explores whether miniature painters achieve a flow state, whether this creates a greater feeling of mindfulness, and how painting impacts their overall mental health. Results from this study indicate that miniature painting is meditative, meaningful, and positive for the participants’ mental health. Using the definition of flow outlined in Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book Optimal Experience: Psychological Studies of Flow in Consciousness (1988), flow is a state of pleasure had when an individual concentrates on a specific task. Csikszentmihalyi, from his research on flow, notes that this state of mind involves both immersion and a sense of transcendence, where the individual temporarily loses a sense of self. This sense of loss of self was explored with an increased attention to the feeling of the body, and situated cognition has been further explored to understand how this connects to painting. While flow is regularly applied to videogame studies, less work has been carried out on this flow state during activities like miniature painting. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Situating Religious Cognition)
14 pages, 250 KiB  
Article
Situated Religious Cognition in Jamesian Pragmatist Philosophy of Religion
by Sami Pihlström
Religions 2024, 15(7), 815; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070815 - 5 Jul 2024
Viewed by 741
Abstract
Pragmatist philosophy of religion has, since the early days of the tradition, developed distinctive accounts of (what we now call) “situated” religious cognition highly relevant to currently ongoing discussions in this developing field. This paper focuses on William James’s pragmatism as an important [...] Read more.
Pragmatist philosophy of religion has, since the early days of the tradition, developed distinctive accounts of (what we now call) “situated” religious cognition highly relevant to currently ongoing discussions in this developing field. This paper focuses on William James’s pragmatism as an important example of such an approach in the philosophy of religion. Some central “situational” themes in James are identified, and special attention is given to the relation between the (situation-dependent) concepts of belief and hope in Jamesian pragmatism. The ontological status of the “objects” of situated religious cognition is thereby also briefly discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Situating Religious Cognition)
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